Posts tagged “India”

(December 22, 2010) The Dean of International Relations invited the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and a few students for an interactive session. Mr. President was a comfortable speaker and very frank diplomat.

I was surprized and delighted at the same time with the frequent use of words (translated) “I would not like to hide/conceal from you what we discussed with your government …” coming from a politician! There was sense of loyalty, trust and straightforwardness in every word. This was so unlike Indian politicians.

I’ve recently started respecting politicians. Unfortunately, I see a clear difference of strata between ours and the ones that I like! I’ll refer to them as “Diplomats” and ours, well – “Politicians”

Outlook & Impressions

Very humble, straight-forward and elegant. A charming personality. Short height. No unnecessary attitude or style. I doubt any lady in the room would not call him handsome!

One starking difference about Russians – Never hesitate in doing what is right!
Whether its performing (what some of us might call) lowly activities like testing the mic or throwing a coffee cup into the bin, kicking-butt of the enemy who attacked your country or just speaking your mind. They have no hesitation or fear of Public, which makes their case seem so genuine in action!

I only wish/hope our Indian counterparts were as inspired by him as I was.

Discussions

IIT Bombay was developed by funds & training from USSR. So in a way, his visit had a symbolic significance and we intended to strengthen ties with them in various technological fields like

About 20 sets of gadgets comprising a two-mega pixel web camera to capture image of the person, slab finger scanner to record the finger prints, single finger scanners, iris camera are being used. The whole process takes about five minutes or even less than that. The details are being collected across 14 centres in Mysore

Queries and Concerns

Technical SecurityHow do they ensure protection and manipulation of information once it is stored in their repository? What threat does it pose to the nation if their database gets leaked or hacked?

Information ValidationHow do they ensure validation of information at the time of storage into the database? What if the information was manipulated at source?

Paperless ID VerificationIf a (secondary) purpose is to avoid the hassle of providing identity support documents, it may not be a bad idea to provide address details to the organization as well. Kinda like a directory service with access control options.Otherwise, the residents would still have to submit documents of address proof -and we’re back to square one?!

Authentication“The authority will not issue any cards” — How do they authenticate my identity otherwise?